Category: composition

I hear so many people lament the quality of student writing at IIT on a regular basis, but no one ever takes that frustration somewhere it counts, including me. Until now.

IIT is currently soliciting comments on how to improve the quality of the student experience at IIT. It’s determined by social voting, and I don’t anticipate a whole lot of student support. Because the platform they use basically buries any post that doesn’t receive a large number of votes, it’s doomed to once again get buried like my previous suggestions. Also, the longer it sits at the bottom, the more chance someone will create a similar issue and split the vote.

I’m tired of having the same conversation with instructors at IIT. This is an issue that needs to be brought to the attention of the university administration. Now.

Please read my proposal and go the suggestion site and vote. I don’t want this issue supplanted by which catering company to use for events or how to make IIT a top-ranked school. With all due respect to those suggestions, the issue of student writing is much more important to the intellectual growth of the university.

Thanks for your attention.

Develop and enact a plan to improve the quality of student writing

Out of all the major universities in Chicago, IIT has by far the most underdeveloped undergraduate writing program, and it shows in the quality of student composition. As a former Writing Center manager at DePaul, I feel that this is a critical issue that has received no attention from administration in the four years that I have been an instructor and grad student here.

Creating a first-year composition program would improve student composition and bring all students up to the collegiate level in their writing proficiency. I’m not alone. Most instructors here recognize the need for students to have better writing instruction, which includes an expanded and modernized Writing Center and trained undergraduate tutors who can assist writers in and out of the classroom.